Rory Mcllroy is one of a host of top athletes trying to improve their fitness ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics by working with scientists at a high performance sports laboratory, which claims to be breaking through the limits of human performance.
Olympians such as triathletes Jonny and Alistair Brownlee, GB field hockey players, F1 driver Jenson Button, along with sports governing bodies and national teams, are looking to improve their physical condition though stamina, speed, cognition, hydration, metabolism and recovery at GlaxoSmithKline’s Human Performance Lab.
“Our purpose really is to understand and break through the limits of human performance,” said Dr. Ken van Someren, director of research and development at the lab, which is based near London.
The world No. 1 golfer visits the lab four times a year, where he is subject to a series of diagnostic tests in the hope that it will aid his fitness and, ultimately, his performance. Van Someren: “It is understanding and giving him (Mcllroy) and his performance team objective measures on data on where he is in terms of the breakdown of his fitness. Working with Rory around training and recovery and a nutritional plan to optimize performance.”
GOING FOR GOLD: While high performance sports labs are nothing new, pharmaceutical company GSK thinks its offering is unique and is breaking new ground, partly because of the sheer breadth of sporting talent -- from rugby players to canoists -- it is enticing to the lab, partly around the the work it is conducting around neuroscience and cognition. Van Someren: “We can leverage the strong fundamental science in GSK and apply it to the performance questions of some of our partners.” Proof that its techniques are working, according to GSK, is that Mcllroy and other athletes keep coming back to the lab, which opened in '13.
The facility is part gymnasium, part laboratory, with state-of-the-art technology such as the V02 Chamber, a new-fangled treadmill that assesses lung capacity and oxygen flow, and an Enviro Chamber, a training room that is designed to reflect the high temperatures and humidity of Rio.
By replicating the conditions in Rio, one additional benefit for GSK is that it can “develop bespoke hydration products” on the back of it. Van Someren believes that the work undertaken with the athletes could prove the difference between winning and losing medals at Rio next year.
It helps “support our partners achieve their performance goals, not least in Rio 2016,” he said.
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
